Friday, December 1, 2017

3.12. Jonah & the Great Fish

We find
Jonah in the Old Testament. Jonah was a prophet (speaker for God).

God told
Jonah to go to Nineveh. But, Jonah decided to run from God and he found a ship
that was going to Tarshish. He paid his fare and went into the bottom of the
ship.

God sent a
great wind out onto the sea, and the ship felt like it was going to be broken
apart! The sailors were afraid! Jonah was at the bottom of the ship sleeping. The
captain woke Jonah up and said “Get up, call on God and maybe He will hear you
and save us!”

Jonah told sailors
that he worshipped God who made the heavens and the seas and he was trying to
run from God. Can you run or hide from God?

The sea was
getting even rougher and they asked Jonah “What should we do?”Jonah told them to “Pick me up and throw me into the
sea and the sea will become peaceful again.” The men tried to row the boat to
the land, but the sea was too rough.So,
the sailors threw Jonah into the sea! The sea became calm.

God had
prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. We don’t know what kind of fish. Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days
and three nights! God spoke to the fish and it spit Jonah out onto dry ground.

God went to
Jonah a second time and told him to go to Nineveh to preach. What do you think
Jonah did this time? He went to Nineveh! Jonah preached the message that God
wanted and the people believed in God.

Even the
king believed and the people changed their bad behavior. They listened to Jonah
and did what God wanted.

Scripture is
found in Jonah 1-3.

This has two different scenes for Jonah included in color and black & white. They can be used by themselves if you only want to use one. The directions are included to make Jonah a separate piece and can be 'tossed' out of the boat and flip it over and Jonah can be 'swallowed' by the great fish. See the pack for more ideas. Click here to download.

I found these super cute sand toy fish at Dollar Tree this summer and knew exactly what I was going to use them for. So, after finding the one at the first store, we went to several others to find enough for the class. I used the Jonah from the pack above and they loved this! You can also play hide Jonah under a fish and let them pick under which fish Jonah is hidden. "We can't see where Jonah is, but God knows!" I always just meander through the new seasonal stuff since there is always something that can be used in class.

Here is a Where is Jonah? Song that I made to sing with the above fish game. I included the Tri-Fold Visual (they can also be used as cards) to use with it. I am having issues with my PDF creator, so there are lines in some of the graphics on the introduction page. The pages for you to print are perfect though. Click here to download. The tune is Frere Jacques or Are You Sleeping? So sorry, I didn't put that information with the song!